British and Irish Furniture Makers in America: Highlights from BIFMO
by Dr. Laurie Lindey
British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO) is a website and database owned and managed by the Furniture History Society (FHS). A generous Dean F. Failey Grant from the Decorative Arts Trust enabled BIFMO to research and document immigrant furniture makers from the British Isles who established themselves in cities and towns within six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. The project continues with aims to comprehensively document these immigrants, c.1700-1900. During the two-year grant period, six interns reviewed newspaper advertisements, the MESDA Craftsman Database, parish and legal records, passenger and immigration records, and published literature.
Joseph B. Barry and Son, Pier table, c. 1810–15, Philadelphia, PA. Mahogany, mahogany veneer, satinwood, amboyna, pine, gilt bronze with yellow poplar. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Friends of the American Wing Fund, Anonymous Gift, George M. Kaufman Gift, Sansbury-Mills Fund; Gifts of the Members of the Committee of the Bertha King Benkard Memorial Fund, Mrs. Russell Sage, Mrs. Frederick Wildman, F. Ethel Wickham, Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, and Mrs. F. M. Townsend, by exchange; and John Stewart Kennedy Fund and Bequests of Martha S. Tiedeman and W. Gedney Beatty, by exchange, 1976.324. Learn more about the Dublin-born Joseph Barry on the BIFMO website.
BIFMO’s Migration and Craftsmanship project charts the movements and influences of furniture makers and ancillary trades; the ways they embraced American social and business customs; and their adaptations in the styles, designs, and construction of manufacture to suit American tastes. This information has helped to enrich our understanding of the opportunities this migrant community sought across all levels of the social and economic spectrum and how cultural exchanges helped to shape American furniture and the American furniture trade, providing a robust foundation for future research. It has also established working and personal relationships between some previously unknown furniture makers and several renowned American tradespeople and politicians of the period.
William Carwithen, Desk, c. 1730-40, Charleston, SC. Walnut, cypress. Early Southern Decorative Arts, MESDA Purchase Fund, 4182. Learn more about William Carwithen, who emigrated from Devon to Charleston, on the BIFMO website.
With the interns’ assistance, Laurie Lindey has written 126 biographical accounts published in the BIFMO database. This includes New York (40); Pennsylvania (48); Maryland (8); Virginia (10); Charleston (14); and Savannah (6). Here is a selection of makers’ entries: Job Adams, John Anderson, Joseph Brown Barry, Thomas Bradford, William Carwithen, John Degez, Isaac Fell, Richard Gouldsmith, William Green, Peter Hall, Thomas Harley, Daniel Hay, Gabriel Leaver, Richard Magrath, Abraham Pearce, George Richey, Robert Rowe, John Steen, James Strachan, James and Blanch White, Thomas Woodin.
Possibly Gabriel Leaver, Card table, c. 1795. Mahogany. Telfair Museums, Attributed to the bequest of Mary Telfair, 1875.102. Learn more about Gabriel Leaver on the BIFMO website.
As well as contributing details to the BIFMO database, the interns wrote articles for the FHS quarterly newsletter, blogs for the BIFMO website, and presented papers. For example, Bridget Garza Griffin wrote “Rediscovered: British and Irish Immigrant Furniture Makers in Early America 1700–1840” for the Furniture History Society (FHS) Newsletter, and wrote “Crafting dreams: An Irish cabinet maker in Early America” for the BIFMO blog, and presented Connections: Mapping the lives and trade networks of British and Irish immigrant furniture makers in north-eastern port cities of Early America at the FHS Early Career Development Symposium, Metropolitan Museum. Grace Ford-Dirks wrote “Daniel Hay, 1751–1798” for the FHS Newsletter, and Abby Whitlock wrote “Baltimore-based bedstead patents in Virginia furniture-making” for the FHS Newsletter. The three interns also presented at the FHS online symposium, Mapping British and Irish Furniture Makers.
We invite you to visit BIFMO to learn more about British and Irish immigrant furniture makers in Early America. We have data to support the development of over 200 further entries and are constantly improving the resource in new and exciting ways.
Dr. Laurie Lindey is the BIFMO Editor.
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